Hot times in the desert means rifle-range business.
When Gov. and chief Realtor Gary Herbert, beseeched fellow Utahns to “use a little common sense” with fireworks and target shooting after a series of human-caused fires swept the state–we thought he was asking a lot.
Bring a bucket of water and a shovel along on outings that involve munitions? Not going to happen, we figured.
First, seldom do Utahn’s and common sense behavior overlap. On top of that, any yahoo who buys fireworks has self-selected himself out of the rational-thinker demographic. (Crawler’s got the scars to show it.)
But lo and behold–the state’s firearms lovers may have gotten the message. Saturday, gun ranges around the county were crowded to overflowing.
The Lee Kay Public Shooting Range west of SLC had waiting lines for shooting stations and was running low on targets. For hours: 801-972-1326
(Note to yahoos: Lee Kay doesn’t allow exploding targets, sub-machine guns or tracer ammo.)
Nevertheless, will someone check in to see if Lee Kay’s still standing?
Considering it’s a week with a holiday smack-dab in the middle of it, there is a remarkable series of concerts arriving in Utah to open up July, and I didn’t even have a spot for the legendary surf-guitar dude Dick Dale’s show Sunday night at Liquid Joe’s–you should certainly consider that gig to end your weekend. And Saturday’s Voyeur is off and running at the Salt Lake Acting Company, too.
Here are the other highlights of the week ahead, so start your planning now:
- The B-52s and Squeeze, Red Butte Garden, Monday, July 2, 7 p.m., sold out
I was surprised when this show became one of the first of Red Butte’s summer concert series to sell out, but happily so. In the B-52s, you have one of the best live bands still kicking around from that first burst of what would become “alternative” rock. You might think of the Athens, Georgia, crew as a Top 40 powerhouse from their Cosmic Thing comeback era, but they were weirdo college-rock a good decade before that, delivering tasty dance-rock jams like “Quiche Lorraine,” “Private Idaho” and “Rock Lobster.” I saw them just a couple of years ago, and they sounded great. Joining them is Squeeze, a band I saw probably 20+ years ago at the old Palladium in Sugar House. I put the hyper-literate Brit rockers right up there with some of their peers from the late ’70s and early ’80s, folks like Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, thanks to tunes like “Black Coffee in Bed” and “Annie, Get Your Gun.” This is a show I’ve been looking forward to since it was announced. At this point, you’ll have to get tix online or from a scalper, but it will be worth it.
Squeeze opens for B-52s on Monday, July 2.
- Fitz and the Tantrums, The Depot, Tuesday, July 3, 8 p.m., $20
The joining of indie-rock with retro-soul is a movement I can totally get behind, if only because the sound of bands like Fitz and the Tantrums force indie-rock kids to move their butt a little and dance. There’s no denying the sound of this Los Angeles crew that’s only been together since 2008. In those few years, they’ve quickly become a touring favorite, and this all-ages show on the eve of a holiday should be as explosive as any fireworks shows going down around town. Royal Teeth open the show.
Fitz and the Tantrums headline The Depot on Tuesday, July 3.
- The Beach Boys, LaVell Edwards Stadium, Provo, Wednesday, July 4, 8 p.m., $25-$120
Rarely will you find me suggesting a trip into an insane mass of tens of thousands of people gathering to watch fireworks at the end of a day-long so-called “Freedom Festival,” but that’s exactly what I’m doing because of the presence of the Beach Boys on the top of the bill at this year’s Stadium of Fire in Provo. Yes, the Beach Boys have been to Utah many times through the years, but this year’s tour is something special thanks to the presence of the band’s resident genius, Brian Wilson, who is back on the road with the band to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The band also released a new album this year, That’s Why God Made the Radio, that is far better than any 50th anniversary album has a right to, so a trip into Provo for a little classic rock ‘n’ roll and fireworks might not be the worst idea for your midweek holiday.
The Beach Boys headline the Stadium of Fire on July 4.
- Beach House and The Walkmen, Pioneer Park, Thursday, July 5, 7 p.m., $5
And off we go, into a new season of the always awesome Twilight Concert Series. There are big changes in store for this year’s edition, the most significant being that the Thursday night shows at Pioneer Park are no longer free–they’ll cost you $5. That’s still a screaming deal, especially when you consider the quality of artists put together by the Salt Lake City Arts Council for 2012, starting with this double-bill of dream-pop Baltimore duo Beach House and alt-rockers The Walkmen. You can get tickets in advance at 24tix.com, and that would probably be a good idea considering the size of the crowds that descend on the park each week.
Beach House kicks off the Twilight Concert Series on Thursday, July 5.
- Heartbreakers and American Girls: The Songs of Tom Petty, Provo Town Square Parking Terrace, Friday, July 6, 8 p.m., free
The July edition of the monthly summertime Rooftop Concert Series in Provo offers a real treat, courtesy of a batch of musicians recruited by local singer/songwriter Paul Jacobsen and an all-star ad hoc local supergroup. The collection of more than 20 musicians and singers is tackling a set of the woefully underappreciated (in my opinion) Tom Petty. Expect some greatest Petty hits, some deep album cuts and maybe some of his contributions to the Traveling Wilburys, performed by members of local bands like The Devil Whale, The Moth and the Flame, Fictionist, Neon Trees and more. I’m hoping they’ll tackle this gem right here:
Wilco is a band that is regarded with such overwhelmingly positivity from most of the rock-critic set that it can be a little off-putting.
Of course, once one sees Wilco on stage instead of simply listening to the sextet’s albums–which range from the straightforward alt-country of their debut A.M. to more experimental A Ghost Is Born to their latest, The Whole Love, that lands somewhere in between–it’s hard to dispute any superlatives thrown at leader Jeff Tweedy and his charges. A Wilco concert is a visceral rock ‘n’ roll experience, and that was never more true than at the band’s sold-out show Monday at Red Butte Garden.
Coming on the heels of two shows at Colorado’s Red Rocks, Wilco’s Red Butte show was a savvy mix of new and old, offering plenty of songs the band didn’t play on their last Utah visit in August of 2008. The band challenged the audience with extended workouts on some songs, but rather than come across as excessive noodling, the live versions of the songs seemed like natural, improved renditions on their recorded versions.
In a ballsy move, Wilco opened the show with three songs from the relatively new The Whole Love, starting with the simple ballad “One Sunday Morning,” which on record stretches out to 12 minutes; it was at least that long Monday. From that someone delicate opener, Tweedy led the band into the album’s noisy art-rock opener, “The Art of Almost,” and from that moment on, including the pop-fueled “I Might” that ended the opening The Whole Love troika, Wilco delivered one transcendent performance after another for the better part of two-and-a-half hours.
The band was incredibly tight throughout. Even when they seemed to erupt into a cacophonous noise frenzy with no seeming direction, the musicians would suddenly stop or change directions on a dime, completely in tune with the other men on stage. Visually, they are a fun band simply to watch. Tweedy led from center stage, decked out in a suit jacket and striking hat for most of the night, while guitarist Nels Cline mesmerized with his aggressive riffing and bright red shirt. On the other side of the stage, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone delivered Pete Townsend windmills on his guitar when he wasn’t adding textures on keyboards.
As the show moved from daylight to darkness, the seemingly simple stage decorations that looked like bedsheets tied in knots and hung from the rafters turned into multi-dimensional props that reflected and refracted different colored lights and film strips projected toward the stage.
Underneath, the band simply killed every song it took on, from older favorites like “Misunderstood,” “Muzzle of Bees,” “Heavy Metal Drummer” and “Handshake Drugs” to songs from The Whole Love like “Born Alone” and “Dawned on Me.” Songs from Wilco debut A.M. and its follow-up Being There (1996) naturally met excited shouts from the audience, including “Box Full of Letters,” “Far, Far Away” and “Red-Eyed and Blue.”
Tweedy was charming throughout, whether greeting the people up on the hillside outside the venue, as he did back in 2008, or giving the seated minority in the VIP/sponsor seating in the middle of the lawn in front of the stage some grief for their apparent lack of enthusiasm. Late in the show, he got a little testy with an overzealous security guard trying to keep people from taking pictures, but overall the singer seemed happy with both the audience, and how his band was playing.
As well he should have been; Wilco was “on” all night. The first encore ended with a couple of songs from Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue project paying homage to Woody Guthrie–“Hesitating Beauty” and “California Stars.” And the second encore ended with rambunctious takes on “I Got You (At the End of the Century) and “Hoodoo Voodoo,” which included a Wilco crew member joining the band, shirtless and finely mulleted, to whack a cowbell along to the music.
It was a hilarious and somewhat bizarre capper on a near-perfect rock show. And as hard as it was to believe that it had been four years since Wilco’s last stellar Red Butte Garden show, there was no doubting that anyone who saw the band on Monday will welcome a return visit a lot sooner than that–like tomorrow.
The complete setlist:
One Sunday Morning>Art of Almost>I Might>Muzzle of Bees>Misunderstood>Impossible Germany>Born Alone>Far, Far Away>Handshake Drugs>Whole Love>Box Full of Letters>Pot Kettle Black>I’m Always in Love>Heavy Metal Drummer>I’m the Man Who Loves You>Dawned on Me>A Shot in the Arm
Encore 1: Via Chicago>Jesus, Etc.>Late Greats>Walken>Hesitating Beauty>California Stars
Encore 2: Red-eyed and Blue>I Got You (At the End of the Century)>Hoodoo Voodoo
One tends to forget just how many great rock ‘n’ roll songs John Fogerty is responsible for; even a fan can find some forgotten gems when the former Creedence Clearwater Revival leader takes the stage and lights into his catalog of bluesy, Southern-tinged swamp-rock.
At Fogerty’s near-capacity show at Deer Valley Thursday night, those gems kept popping up among the tried-and-true old favorites that filled his set. For every “Hey Tonight” and “Green River”–the two songs that opened the show–there were tunes I hadn’t thought of in years, like “Lodi” or “Long As I Can See the Light.”
Right from the start just after 8 p.m. on a stunningly perfect summer night on the hillside, Fogerty and his top-notch band delivered stellar takes on hit after hit. The man just turned 67 at the end of May, but Fogerty’s voice, and especially his guitar chops, have not seemed to age at all. He always had that distinct Southern drawl even when he was young, and it’s still there in his older years; Fogerty punctuated many a song with a drawn-out “Thank Ewwwww!”
Fogerty didn’t spend a lot of time chatting up the crowd between songs. Even when he claimed he was going to tell a story, it was usually something quick. Early on, introducing “Who’ll Stop the Rain?,” he pronounced, “Many years ago, I was at a place called Woodstock. It was kind of like this. Except you all are way better looking, and I’m SURE you all have a lot more money.”
Well, yeah. But if his stage patter left something to be desired, his music didn’t. With powerhouse drummer Kenny Aronoff leading an excellent batch of backing musicians, Fogerty ripped through songs like “Looking Out My Back Door,” “Born on a Bayou” and “Rambunctious Boy.” The opening notes of “The Midnight Special” caused the crowd to roar, and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” turned into a massive singalong.
Playing upwards of two hours and more than 20 songs, Fogerty’s energy never flagged; he and his band worked out some monster instrumental interludes at various points during the show that would have floored much younger bands, but these guys would just chug right into the next song.
A cover of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” was a pleasant surprise, “Heard It Through the Grapevine” was sublime, “The Night Time is the Right Time” gave the band a chance to work out a traditional blues sound, and “Down on the Corner” was a joyful romp.
That pretty much goes for the whole night. It’s hard to beat an American master, leading an ace band, delivering a greatest-hits set, especially when the hits still sound so relevant. A lot of classic rock artists have had their songs worn out by too many spins on the radio and too many tours, but Fogerty’s songs don’t seem stale in the least.
Just honestly, truly, classic.
We’re looking at a music treasure trove over the next week in Utah, thanks to a series of stellar headlining shows by legendary performers, and the Utah Arts Festival’s full slate of worthy tunes to go along with all manner of visual-arts stimuli at Library Square. Wilco has FINALLY sold out by the time you see this, so unless you have tickets to the Monday show at Red Butte Garden already, it’s time to hit the Internet or make alternate plans for what I expect to be one of the best shows of the summer, if not the entire year. Plenty of other options are out there, though, so take a look:
- John Fogerty, Deer Valley Snowpark Amphitheater, Park City, Thursday, 7 p.m.
I could list a whole bunch of the rock ‘n’ roll classics that John Fogerty is responsible for as one way to convince you to check out his show Thursday at Deer Valley; songs like “Green River,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son” and “Proud Mary” are some of the best in American pop history, from one of our most distinct voices. I could talk about the man who refused to back down from shady label honchos who literally wouldn’t let Fogerty perform his own songs for years, and accused him of plagiarizing HIMSELF when he put out “The Old Man Down the Road” as a solo artist. But instead, I’ll tell you what made me a Fogerty fan–he’s the guy who inspired Mike Watt of the Minutemen to want to be a rock musician, and the guy who make Watt love “flyin’ the flannel” well before grunge came along. Fogerty is releasing an album this fall full of collaborations with the likes of My Morning Jacket and Foo Fighters, but in the meantime, you can hear him kill it live and in person. If you saw his last appearance at Deer Valley, you know you won’t be disappointed.
John Fogerty headlines at Deer Valley Thursday, June 21.
- Utah Arts Festival, Library Square, Thursday-Sunday, all day, $10
Always a highlight of the summer in Salt Lake City, the Utah Arts Festival gets going Thursday for four days of live music, visual arts booths, film and, over by the Leo, even a little science. There are so many bands worth seeing, I’m not going to list them, but I can suggest you go to the Utah Arts Festival Website and check out the complete list of performing musicians. On my radar? Locals The Devil Whale, The Lower Lights, Laserfang, No Nation Orchestra and many more. And of the national headliners, I’m particularly stoked on the Sunday night closing slot occupied by Blue Highway, a traditional bluegrass band with serious chops. They play at 9:45 on the Festival Stage, but seriously, go look at the full schedule and make yourself some notes.
Blue Highway plays Sunday, June 24, at the Utah Arts Festival.
- Benefit for the Garage on Beck Staff, The State Room, Saturday, 7 p.m., $10 donations suggested
When the Garage on Beck caught fire a couple weekends back, not only did it deprive fans of live music and tasty grub of one of their favorite spots until it reopens; it left the bar’s crack staff without any income until the place comes back to life. Hence, this benefit, which is geared toward raising at least $3,000 to help the staff make it until they’re back on the clock on Beck. The bands playing make it pretty easy to want to make a donation; The Trappers, The Folka Dots, Spell Talk, Triggers & Slips and Candy’s River House are all on the bill.
The Trappers are one of the bands playing the Benefit for the Garage Staff on Saturday at The State Room.
- Jimmy Cliff, Red Butte Garden, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., $40
Jimmy Cliff just might be the most popular reggae artist besides Bob Marley. He’s a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with 40 years in the business under his belt, and he’s still going strong. And he’s responsible for a large number of Americans discovering reggae music at all, via his classic Jamaican gangster epic film The Harder They Come, and its amazing soundtrack headlined by Cliff. If you’ve never seen him, you’ll not only dig the show–you’ll be surprised how many of Cliff’s songs that you know.
Jimmy Cliff headlines at Red Butte Garden on Tuesday, June 26.
- Glen Campbell, Sandy City Amphitheater, Tuesday, 8 p.m., $30-$49
My childhood introduction to Glen Campbell came via his hit song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” a song I later heard Soul Asylum totally kill at a show at the Bar & Grill (current home of the Woodshed). But I digress–Campbell is a masterful guitar player who was an in-demand session man for the likes of the Beach Boys before launching his own successful career through tunes like “Wichita Lineman” and “Southern Nights.” A couple years back, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, so he went into the studio to cut one last album and then support it with one last tour. “The Goodbye Tour” stops in Sandy on Tuesday, two nights after Campbell headlines the Hollywood Bowl. You’ll hear the classics, plus cuts from that farewell album, Ghost on the Canvas, which includes contributions by the likes of The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg, Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard, Brian Setzer, Chris Isaak and Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan.
Glen Campbell headlines at Sandy City Amphitheater on Tuesday, June 16, on his Goodbye Tour.
When you go see a Neko Case concert, not only do you get to witness one of alt-country’s finest songwriters and most stunning voices in action. You also get some top-quality between-song banter courtesy of Case’s quick wit, comfortable relationship with her long-time band and willingness to say pretty much anything from moment to moment.
Neko Case playing at Library Square Saturday night. (Photo courtesy of Utah Arts Festival.)
That certainly proved to be the case Saturday when Case headlined the Utah Arts Festival’s annual Summer Solstice Concert, despite the fact that her friend, harmonizing partner and rival in on-stage comedic one-upmanship, Kelly Hogan, wasn’t with the band on this trip to Utah as she instead tours this summer in support of her own excellent new album, I Like to Keep Myself in Pain.
Hogan was certainly missed, both for her vocal skills and ability to goad Case into ever-funnier chatter, but the show didn’t seem to lack anything as Case and her band delivered a set spanning her catalog of dark, twisting narratives and surrealistic lyrical salvos, including some brand new tunes.
Along the way, Case lobbed some hilarious one-liners at the appreciative crowd of a few thousand fans. Among my favorites of the night, paraphrased from my scribbled notes:
“This is a love song for my (New Pornographers) bandmates. When I close my eyes and sing it, I can see Dan Bejar’s hair.”
Describing her stream of dark, depressing tunes in the set: “Wow, this is a Saturday night bum-out session. Just lay down and hold yourselves.”
(Introducing a new song called “A Tribute to Whores”): “This song is about that whore, Kelly Hogan, and you can tell her I said that. This song is also a fucking drag.”
“That’s the great thing about the New Pornographers: every dude in the band sings like three ladies.”
Case’s asides offered moments of levity between a series of outstanding performances by her and her excellent band, whose combination of traditional rock instrumentation and touches of pedal-steel, banjo and stand-up bass gave them the ability to deliver both the lush songs from Case’s most-recent release, 2009’s Middle Cyclone, with more sparse, twangy fare like the songs from 2002’s Blacklisted.
Songs like “That Teenage Feeling” and “Maybe Sparrow” early in the show were proof of what a stellar group Case has around her, with guitarist Jon Rauhouse the most noteworthy of the lot in those performances, and most of the night.
“I Wish I Was the Moon” from Blacklisted was a highlight of the night, as were “Hold On, Hold On” and “Margaret vs. Pauline” from Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood album. A cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Don’t Forget Me” is what inspired her to remark on the depressing nature of much of her material.
A couple of new songs also provided some of Saturday night’s most exciting moments. The aforementioned “A Tribute to Whores” was a downbeat winner that came after an excellent “Margaret vs. Pauline.” And “Nearly Midnight in Honolulu” was part of Case’s encore, offering “more depressing music.”
The thing is, the dark lyrical themes come through as beautiful performances in the hands of Case and her band. You put that band together with a perfect summer night outdoors like we had on Saturday, and “depressing” is the last word you’d use to describe the show.
Daniel Nailen 